It was around noon in Ponyville, just a few days before the Running of the Leafs was to commence. Celestia’s sun shone down pleasantly on the now small city, and it’s citizens were taking every opportunity they could find to embrace the warming rays. Ponies played in the park, others were enjoying their lunch out on Sugarcube Corner’s patio, and Cheerilee was hosting what was probably going to be one of the last outdoor classes of the year.
Summer might be coming to it’s close, but that didn’t mean ponies had to act like it. Instead they were going to make the most of it while they could.
One such pony in particular was enjoying her sunshine in her own way. Princess Twilight Sparkle, seated outside on her bedroom balcony, sighed in bliss as she stretched back in her recliner, her nose deep in a book she was reading for the fourth time. It wasn’t often she was allowed a moment of peace, not lately. Usually her days were made up of some kind of royal duty, or following a new lead on the Friendship Map (although admittedly those had petered out slowly over the years), get togethers with her friends, or just general socializing with the ponies of Ponyville. Twilight would over course admit at a moment’s notice that she was perfectly fine with all of that, but even she needed her “me” time every now and then. Just her, her favorite copy of “Advanced Spells and Incantations”, a nice glass of lemonade, and not a care in the-
The silence was immediately yet subtly broken by a faint crying emanating from within the castle. Twilight’s ear twitched at the sound. She sighed, smiling to herself.
“So much for ‘me’ time…”
Twilight set the book down on the balcony ledge beside her lemonade. She would get to those later. Right now she had more pressing matters to attend to.
Twilight made her way back inside her bedroom and proceeded down the hallway in a brisk trot. The crying had gotten a bit louder, but it wasn’t a severe volume, at least not yet. By her estimate, he had just woken up and wanted her. Coming to a blue and white door, Twilight’s magic surrounded the door and opened for the purple alicorn. Inside, organized chaos ruled the room. Wooden blocks lay scattered in the corner, a little inflatable ball was beside the door, and every known picture book lined the walls of the room in no particular order. Normally such a scene would have made Twilight’s mane stand on end, but in this particular room, she hardly even noticed the disarray. Why did she make such an exception?
“Were you calling me, Sirius?”
Twilight stepped up to a white ornate crib, in which lay a pegasus colt with a navy coat and albino mane. She peered down lovingly at the young colt, who gurgled delightfully when the Princess came into his view. He, of course, didn’t know her as “Princess”, to him she was “mommy”.
Twilight reached into the crib and took hold of her foal, lifting him up out of his crib and bringing him to rest against her chest. Sirius tried to wrap his little legs around his mother neck, like he always would, but of course they were too small to do that just yet. He rubbed his cheek against Twilight, and she nuzzled him back.
“Sorry honey. I thought I could sneak in a little personal time while you were having your nap.” Sirius yawned when Twilight said that, making her laugh a bit. “Guess I should have know better, huh?”
Sirius just continued to rub affectionately against his mother, completely oblivious to whatever it was Twilight was saying. She smiled at her colt again as she began to make her way out of the room, slower than she had earlier.
“Well I guess we’ll just have to spend some alone time together. Sound good?”
Twilight was almost out of the nursery when she noticed a guard was making his way over to her.
“Excuse me, Princess, I hope I’m not interrupting anything important?” The guard looked down at Sirius, smiling at the young prince when he noticed he was sticking his tongue out at him.
“Not at all, Boulder. What can I do for you?”
“Nothing for me, your Highness. In fact I have a message for you, from your friend, Mrs. Pinkie.”
“Pinkie?” Twilight repeated, confused. “About what? Did she have to cancel out playdate today?” Twilight hoped that wasn’t the case, she had been looking forward to it.
Boulder cleared his throat awkwardly before continuing. “Ahem. Actually, Princess, Mrs. Pinkie has just arrived for the playdate, and she had asked me to find you and the young prince.”
Twilight blinked. “She’s here now? But we weren’t supposed to get together until noon.”
Boulder’s jaw went slack for a moment, clearly not expecting that answer. “Um...Princess Twilight, it is currently ten minutes past noon.”
Twilight’s eyes grew a bit wider. It was already noon?! No, it was past noon, it was afternoon! She realized just how much she had gotten drawn into her book that she hadn’t noticed the time go by. That was why Sirius had cried out for her! And now she was late for her playdate with Pinkie! If Twilight was anything, it was punctual, and this right now was a big black spot on her permanent record. UNACCEPTABLE.
“Ah! Oh my goodness! Thank you for finding me when you did, Boulder. I completely lost track of time! Could you please go back to Pinkie and tell her I’ll be down in a minute or two?”
Boulder gave Twilight a swift salute. “I’d be happy to, your Highness.” And with that Boulder spun around and quickly trotted away, leaving Twilight and Sirius to follow in his wake.
“I can’t believe myself…” Twilight chastised herself while Sirius stared up at her. She sighed dejectedly before her smile from earlier crept across her face. “Well, no use crying over spilt milk. Let’s go see Auntie Pinkie, Sirus.”
Sirius cried out in glee and Twilight set off at a much slower pace than Boulder had. Of all the things she had learned about when it came to being a mother, nothing was nearly as difficult as holding her foal when she walked. Everything else came to Twilight, given time and patients, but walking with three legs while holding a foal was the one thing that continued to pester her. It was just so awkward! Flash had gotten it down in just a day, but she was nowhere CLOSE to where he was at. She still wobbled every few steps. She briefly considered flying, but had a feeling that wouldn’t be much of an improvement.
Two minutes of awkward wobbling and once nearly falling over later, Twilight found her way to the main chambers, where she saw the party pony Pinkie Pie sitting and humming a song to herself happily.
“Pinkie!” Twilight called out to her. Pinkie turned to find the source of the familiar voice, and her face lit up like candles on a cake when she saw Twilight.
“OOOOOOOH Twilight, I’m so super duper happy you made it!” The Pink pony bounced up the stairs like there were springs on her hooves, beaming at her friend.
“Er,” Twilight frowned quizzically at her friend. “Pinkie, I live here. You’d say I’m glad super duper happy you made it if we were meeting at your place.”
Pinkie just giggled, her typical reaction whenever Twilight tried to explain anything to her. “Maybe, but you’re late, missus purple punctual princess! Or should I say UNpunctual purple princess?!” Pinkie bounced around Twilight as she spoke, making the punctual purple princess feel a touch of vertigo. Twilight was about to voice her retort when Pinkie gasped sharply and lunged to Twilight’s side, staring intensely at the little pegasus she hadn’t noticed.
“OHMYGOSHISTHISSIRIUS?!?!” Pinkie shrieked in glee. “He’s ADORABLE!”
Sirius had clutched himself tighter to his mother when Pinkie had drawn closer, but with that last comment he giggled earnestly at the pink party pony, making both Pinkie and Twilight’s hearts melt at the sound.
“Aww, he likes you!” Twilight was glad to see Sirius received Pinkie, forgetting completely about the comment about her tardiness entirely. Just then another fit of giggling rose up around Twilight and Pinkie, one that didn’t belong to Sirius. Twilight looked around the large room to try and locate it’s source, when a thought struck her that got her wide-eyed.
“P-Pinkie! Where did you leave Grimmm?!”
Pinkie looked up from making a silly face at Sirius to Twilight, as if she hadn’t heard her the first time around.
“Grimmm?” She echoed. “Oh! Grimmm! Right! One sec.”
Pinkie reached back into her mane and rummaged around. Sounds like piano keys, plates crashing, and a cuckoo clock filled the chamber for the next few seconds before Pinkie exclaimed “AHA!”, and pulled out a chocolaty brown colt, giggling excitedly.
“There you are, Grimmm! You had Aunty Twilight all worried! Naughty naughty!” Pinkie fake-scolled her son as she rubbed his tummy with her nose, making the colt laugh even louder. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief at realizing Grimmm hadn’t wandered off somewhere in the castle. Once her pulse had returned to normal Twilight came over to get a better look at Grimmm. She had met him a few months earlier in the week he had been born, but since then she had been quite busy with her duties and of course having Sirius herself.
“Hello there, Grimmm. Do you remember me? You’ve gotten bigger since the last time I saw you.”
Grimmm turned to look at Twilight. He smiled at her and blew a raspberry in her direction, causing Twilight to perk up at.
The two mothers sat there a moment, admiring their colts and their cuteness. Having taken a seat earlier, Twilight sat up on all fours and stretched her wings.
“Well, shall we make our way to the nursery?”
Pinkie smiled her sweet smile again. “Lead the way!”
“Buh?”
Pinkie and Twilight were about to set off when Sirius pipped up. Twilight looked down to the pegasus colt, and saw that his eyes were fixed on Grimmm, who's on gaze was fixed back on Sirius. The two young foals stared at each other unblinking, and it was then that Twilight realized that this was the first time Sirius had seen another pony his age, which could probably be said for Grimmm.
A thought came to Twilight then.
“Hey, Pinkie, why don’t we let them meet each other?”
Pinkie’s ears stood at attention when Twilight said that. “Hmmm? Meet each other? Haven’t they just done that?”
“No no,” Twilight shook her head, and slowly, gently placed Sirius on the ground in front of her. “I mean ‘meet’ each other.”
It took Pinkie a few seconds to understand what Twilight meant, but with an “OH!” she too set Grimmm down on the floor. The two colts continued to stare at each other, not knowing what to do, when Grimmm began to trot over to Sirius. The young prince looked back at his mother, who nodded encouragingly to her son. When Grimmm had made his way to Sirius, he sat back down on his flank, and raised a hoof, tapping Sirius on the nose lightly, causing the pegasus to flinch. Twilight thought Sirius might start crying then, but instead he blinked a few times before doing the same to Grimmm. A moment of silence based, before both colts erupted in giggles, tapping each other on their noses more enthusiastically, like it was some kind of game. Twilight smiled as wide as she could, her heart warmed by the scene before her.
“Aww, they’re friends!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing on the spot in ecstasy. “In fact I think they’re BEST friends!”
Twilight hummed to herself. “I think you’re right Pinkie.” She came around to sit beside her friend as Sirius and Grimmm continued their game, now playing a rough game of ‘patty-cake’. “Say, why don’t we just have the playdate here? It looks like they’re having a great time already.”
And they were.